I Want To Be an Airport! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Idlewild

The airport was renamed in 1963 in honour of the recently assassinated president. The airport is situated in Jamaica in the Queens area of the city. Newark and LaGuardia are two other airports that serve New York City. LaGuardia is named after Fiorello LaGuardia, a former mayor of the city. Prior to taking this name it was named after Glenn Curtiss, a pioneer in the field of aviation.

Answer: John Lennon

I'm not trying to suggest to you that you need to be assassinated to get your name up in airport lights but unfortunately our second airport was also named after such a victim. Formerly known as Speke Airport, it was renamed in 2002 after Lennon, who was born in Liverpool in 1940. Further connections to Lennon and The Beatles can be found in and around the airport in the shape of a "Yellow Submarine" artwork on a traffic island outside the airport and a statue of Lennon himself, in the check-in hall.

Answer: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The airport is now called Bole International Airport, after the local neighbourhood in which the airport is situated.

Rastafarianism takes its name from Selassie's birth name (Tafari Makonnen) and the Ethiopian title of "Ras" which means "head". Rastafarians consider Selassie to be the Messiah and God incarnate, as predicted in the "Book of Revelations", who will lead the African people to emancipation and divine justice.

Answer: Washington DC

The full title of the airport is Washington Dulles International Airport, although it is actually situated in the state of Virginia some 25 miles away from the city.

John Foster Dulles was born in Washington DC and having embarked on a career as a solicitor, he made his first major foray into the political world as legal counsel for the US at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 where he argued against the imposition of highly punitive reparations against Germany.

The nephew of former Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, Dulles served in the role from 1953 to 1959 under President Eisenhower.

Answer: Frederic Chopin

Chopin was born in the Duchy of Warsaw in 1810 and moved to the city seven months later. He was hailed as a child prodigy for his musical abilities and published his first compositions at the age of just seven. He began performing on the piano publicly a year later.

Chopin left Poland on a tour of performances around Europe at the age of twenty and never returned to the country of his birth. In 1831 he settled in France, the country of his father's birth and was resident there until his death in 1849 at the age of just 39. By the time of his death he was considered the foremost composer for piano of the Romantic period.

Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport was originally named Okêcie International Airport after the district in which it was situated.

Answer: Tirana, Albania

Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, then part of the Ottoman empire, now part of Macedonia, of Albanian parents. After taking her vows and becoming a nun in 1931, Mother Teresa devoted herself to missionary work in India from 1948, aiming to help "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers", beginning her work in Calcutta and continuing there and beyond for over 40 years.

The airport is commonly known as Rinas International Airport, after the town in which it is based.

Answer: George Best

Belfast City Airport was renamed after one of the city's favourite sons in 2006, following George Best's death the previous year. The unveiling of the name came on what would have been Best's 60th birthday.

Best, once hailed as the European Footballer of the Year, spent the most successful part of his career with Manchester Utd winning two League titles and a European Cup during his 11 years there. His career was less successful after this, partly as a consequence of the drinking that would ultimately lead to his relatively early death.

Answer: Edward O'Hare

Edward "Butch" O'Hare was a Medal of Honor winner in World War II and the US Navy's first flying ace.

He was lost on November 26, 1943 leading a counter-attacking mission against night-time attacks against the US aircraft carriers of the Pacific fleet, the first such mission and the one for which he received his Medal of Honour. His plane was never recovered.

Answer: Caracas, Venezuela

Simón Bolívar International Airport is located in Maiquetía, Venezuela and serves the capital city, Caracas. There used to be a Simón Bolívar airport in Guayaquil, Ecuador also but it was renamed in honour of José Joaquín de Olmedo, an Ecuadorian poet, in 2006.

Bolívar played a considerable role in the liberation of much of Latin America from Spanish rule and he was President of no fewer than four South American countries in his lifetime. For these reasons his name can be found on street signs, buildings and in the names of towns, districts and even countries (Bolivia) throughout South, Central and even North America. But only in his native Venezuela is a major airport named after him.

Answer: Indira Gandhi

Indira Ghandi was India's first female Prime Minister and daughter of independent India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. She was another of the list who unfortunately lost her life at the hands of an assassin.

In 1984 she was killed by two of her Sikh bodyguards as retaliation for the perceived desecration of the Golden Temple at Amritsar, Sikhism's holiest shrine. Four months previously, Gandhi had ordered the storming of the shrine to flush out a group of Sikh militants who had taken control of the temple complex. In the operation by the Indian military, more than 1000 people were killed, many of whom were innocent Sikh worshippers.

The airport in Hyderabad, India is named after Rajiv Ghandi.

Answer: Ninoy Aquino

Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr was a leading opposition senator in the Philippines during the Presidency of Ferdinand Marcos.

Aquino had been in self-imposed exile in the US from 1980 following heart bypass surgery. He was returning to Manila to try and negotiate with Marcos, due to the latter's ill health.

As he stepped off the plane, a shot was fired at his head from point blank range, killing him instantly. The alleged assassin was Rolando Galman who was shot dead at the airport but his guilt is much disputed.

The assassination galvanised the opposition in the country ultimately culminating in the removal of Marcos from office in 1986. He was succeeded as President by Ninoy Aquino's widow, Cory. The airport was named in Ninoy's honour in 1987.

Answer: Louis Armstrong

Armstrong, popularly known as "Satchmo" was born in New Orleans in 1901 and was one of the key figures in the jazz scene in New Orleans. His fame came from his excellence as a cornet and trumpet player and latterly as a jazz singer. His great influence was in introducing the improvisational element to jazz.

As well as the city's airport, which was renamed from Moisant Field in 2001, there is also a Louis Armstrong park within the city.

Answer: Milan - Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci airport can be found in Rome. Milan's main airport is called Malpensa International Airport and is the busiest airport in Italy in terms of international passengers.

Answer: True

Saddam fostered a cult of personality during his time in office and as a consequence was quite keen on naming things after himself.

The airport was seized by US forces in April 2003 and the signage was changed from Saddam to Baghdad. However, the IATA code for the airport remains as SDA.

Answer: Jan Smuts

Jan Smuts was twice Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919-24 and from 1939-48. Smuts also acted as Field Marshal in the British Army during both World War I and World War II. Smuts considerable achievements also include the foundation of the League of Nations, the establishment of the British Commonwealth and the chancellorship of Cambridge University.

Jan Smuts airport was renamed to Johannesburg International Airport in 1994 and in 2006 it was renamed to OR Tambo International Airport. Tambo was a senior figure in the African National Congress (ANC), holding the position of Deputy President, Acting President and President despite being in exile in London for over 30 years. On his return to South Africa in 1991 he was voted in as National Chairperson of the ANC but sadly died two years later, a year before the ANC took power in South Africa under the presidency of Nelson Mandela.

Kimberly airport in South Africa was formerly known as B.J. Vorster airport.